Tracy McGrady on Dwight Howard: Mavericks the Best Option


T-Mac has been through the free agency whirlwind, and he advises Dwight Howard that playing for the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets isn’t nearly as appealing as it would be to hoop in Dallas (and to bring along Deron Williams with him.) From Yahoo! Sports: “McGrady was one of the originals who inspired franchises to clear salary-cap space, to partner with another All-Star, and few have lived the free-agent frenzy like him. Yes, McGrady knows of Howard requesting a trade to the New Jersey Nets to play with Deron Williams, but he doesn’t care about the Nets’ shiny new arena in Brooklyn, the Russian billionaire owner willing to spend and spend. For whatever it’s worth, T-Mac doesn’t see Howard and the Nets. ‘I can’t see him coming here,’ McGrady said. ‘If it’s just Dwight and D-Will, he’s better off just staying in Orlando. You want to go to a team that’s championship caliber, and just him and D-Will won’t get it done. There’s got to be other pieces around to make it look sweet.’ […] If Howard goes elsewhere, so does Deron Williams, and, yes, general manager Billy King’s plan would come tumbling down. It’s a bold gamble, the highest risk-reward scenario in memory – the kind that unfolded with Orlando and the Chicago Bulls in the 2000 free-agent market for McGrady, Grant Hill and Tim Duncan. It’s so hard for players to visualize a different day for the Nets, a Brooklyn arena that still is under construction. And so much easier to make a case for the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks and an owner, Mark Cuban, who is fully engaged in the championship chase. After watching the Nets offer no resistance to the Hawks in a 106-70 dismantling Tuesday night, T-Mac’s vision of Howard’s future had been further validated in his own mind. ‘D-Will is from Dallas,’ McGrady said. ‘You’ve got Dirk Nowitzki there. They’re going to have [cap space] there. That looks sweet. Dirk. D-Will. And then you get Dwight Howard. That’s it, right there.'”